nfTBOBirOTION. 9 



eggs therein deposited are hatched, not, as with other Birds, 

 by the warmth of the body of the parent, but by the heat given 

 out by decomposing matter which they are careful to enclose 

 within their mounds. This absence of parental care in hatching 

 results in the young Birds being forced at once to take care of 

 themselves as soon as hatched. Therewith their development 

 within the egg is so complete that they come forth full-fledged, 

 so that they can fly at once, though it seems that they may 

 actually attain a considerable size before they quit the mound *. 



Fig. 5. 



The Ocellated Mound-builder {Leipoa ocellata). 



Beturning to our own domain, we may note that, relatively 

 small as are the British Islands, they are nevertheless the exclu- 

 sive home of a much valued Bird — the true Grouse (Lagopus 

 seoticus). It is one member of a genus the species of which range 

 through the northern lands of both hemispheres, being one of 

 •a number of genera which may be called " circumpolar." Not 

 only is it truly indigenous to the United Kingdom, but it is 

 the one only Bird which is found here and nowhere else in the 



* See a note by Mr. Whitehead in 'The Ibis' for 1888, p. 411. 



